Pride As Defense

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Every Woman's Battle: Discovering God's Plan for Sexual and Emotional Fulfillment (2003)

  • Although she is married, Carla claims it’s no big deal when her friend Danny flirts and jokes around with her. When he tosses out some sexual innuendos, she responds in kind, insisting that any woman would do the same. Translation: The rules of right and wrong don’t apply to me. I can bend the standards of righteousness because others do it as well. • Once active in an accountability group, Alicia has stopped attending because of the time she spends with her new boyfriend, Rob. Concerned about her sudden disappearance, Alicia’s friend from the group has tried to call several times just to make sure Alicia is staying grounded in her commitment to keep God first in her life and not get sucked into another sexual relationship. Alicia finds the calls annoying, refuses to pick up the phone, and wishes everyone would just leave her and Rob alone. Translation: I don’t need anyone holding me accountable. I’m above temptation or reproach. What I do is nobody else’s business. • Shirley’s premenstrual moods have driven her husband of fifteen years further and further away. To compensate for her lack of emotional connection, her conversations with a friendly male coworker have gotten more and more intimate. Translation: If I can’t get my emotional needs met by my husband, I’ll get them met elsewhere. Pride assumes several things: • I deserve whatever I desire. • My needs should be met at any cost. • Life is all about me and my pleasure. • The rules apply to everyone else but me. • I’m above the consequences. While we may never say these statements out loud, don’t our actions sometimes prove these attitudes to be true? If we long to be women of sexual and emotional integrity, we must surrender our pride. James 4:6 reminds us that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” We can imagine what being opposed by God might look like (and shudder at the thought!). But what does God’s “grace to the humble” look like? Titus 2:11-14 describes it vividly: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

• From The Well of Loneliness (1928)

  Wanda needed no second invitation to talk, and very soon her eyes were aglow with the fire of the born religious fanatic as she told of the little town in Poland, with its churches, its bells that were always chiming — the Mass bells beginning at early dawn, the Angelus bells, the Vesper bells — always calling, calling they were, said Wanda. Through the years of persecution and strife, of wars and the endless rumours of wars that had ravaged her most unhappy country, her people had clung to their ancient faith like true children of Mother Church, said Wanda. She herself had three brothers, and all of them priests; her parents had been very pious people, they were both dead now, had been dead for some years; and Wanda signed her breast with the Cross, having regard for the souls of her parents. Then she tried to explain the mean- ing of her faith, but this she did exceedingly badly, finding that words are not always easy when they must encompass the things of the spirit, the things that she herself knew by instinct; and then, too, these days her brain was not clear, thanks to brandy, even when she was quite sober. The details of her coming to Paris she omitted, but Stephen thought she could easily guess them, for Wanda declared with a curious pride that her brothers were men of stone and of iron. Saints they all were, according to Wanda, uncompromising, fierce and relentless, seeing only the straight and narrow path on each side of which yawned the fiery chasm. “I was not as they were, ah, no!’ she declared, * Nor was I as my father and mother; I was — I was . . .’ She stopped speak- ing abruptly, gazing at Stephen with her burning eyes which said quite plainly: ‘ You know what I was, you understand.’ And Stephen nodded, divining the reason of Wanda’s exile. But suddenly Mary began to grow restless, putting an end to this dissertation by starting the large, new gramophone which Stephen had given her for Christmas. The gramophone blared out the latest foxtrot, and jumping up Barbara and Jamie started 432 THE WELL OF LONELINESS dancing, while Stephen and Wanda moved chairs and tables, rolled back rugs and explained to the barking David that he could not join in, but might, if he chose, sit and watch them dance from the divan. Then Wanda slipped an arm around Mary and they glided off, an incongruous couple, the one clad as sombrely as any priest, the other in her soft evening dress of blue chiffon. Mary lay gently against Wanda’s arm, and she seemed to Stephen a very perfect dancer — lighting a cigarette, she watched them. The dance over, Mary put on a new record; she was flushed and her eyes were considerably brighter. ‘Why did you never tell me? ’ Stephen murmured. ‘Tell you what? ’ ‘Why, that you danced so well.’

• From The Confessions of Saint Augustine (354)

  But now, my God, cry Thou aloud in my soul; and let Thy truth tell me, “Not so, not so. Far better was that first study.” For, lo, I would readily forget the wanderings of Aeneas and all the rest, rather than how to read and write. But over the entrance of the Grammar School is a vail drawn! true; yet is this not so much an emblem of aught recondite, as a cloak of error. Let not those, whom I no longer fear, cry out against me, while I confess to Thee, my God, whatever my soul will, and acquiesce in the condemnation of my evil ways, that I may love Thy good ways. Let not either buyers or sellers of grammar-learning cry out against me. For if I question them whether it be true that Aeneas came on a time to Carthage, as the poet tells, the less learned will reply that they know not, the more learned that he never did. But should I ask with what letters the name “Aeneas” is written, every one who has learnt this will answer me aright, as to the signs which men have conventionally settled. If, again, I should ask which might be forgotten with least detriment to the concerns of life, reading and writing or these poetic fictions? who does not foresee what all must answer who have not wholly forgotten themselves? I sinned, then, when as a boy I preferred those empty to those more profitable studies, or rather loved the one and hated the other. “One and one, two”; “two and two, four”; this was to me a hateful singsong: “the wooden horse lined with armed men,” and “the burning of Troy,” and “Creusa’s shade and sad similitude,” were the choice spectacle of my vanity.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  3. Tertullian is the first to make that comparison of the church with Noah’s ark, which has since become classical in Roman catholic theology; and he likewise attributes heresies to the devil, without any qualification. But as to schism, he was himself guilty of it since he joined the Montanists and bitterly opposed the Catholics in questions of discipline. He has therefore no place in the Roman Catholic list of the patres, but simply of the scriptores ecclesiae. 4. Even Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, with all their spiritualistic and idealizing turn of mind, are no exception here. The latter, in the words: "Out of the church no man can be saved,"239 brings out the principle of the catholic exclusiveness as unequivocally as Cyprian. Yet we find in him, together with very severe judgments of heretics, mild and tolerant expressions also; and he even supposes, on the ground of Rom. 2:6 sqq., that in the future life honest Jews and heathens will attain a suitable reward, a low grade of blessedness, though not the "life everlasting" in the proper sense. In a later age he was himself condemned as a heretic. Of other Greek divines of the third century, Methodius in particular, an opponent of Origen, takes high views of the church, and in his Symposion poetically describes it as "the garden of God in the beauty of eternal spring, shining in the richest splendor of immortalizing fruits and flowers;" as the virginal, unspotted, ever young and beautiful royal bride of the divine Logos. 5. Finally, Cyprian, in his Epistles, and most of all in his classical tract: De Unitate Eccelesiae, written in the year 251, amidst the distractions of the Novatian schism, and not without an intermixture of hierarchical pride and party spirit, has most distinctly and most forcibly developed the old catholic doctrine of the church, her unity, universality, and exclusiveness. He is the typical champion of visible, tangible church unity, and would have made a better pope than any pope before Leo I.; yet after all he was anti-papal and anti-Roman when he differed from the pope. Augustin felt this inconsistency, and thought that he had wiped it out by the blood of his martyrdom. But he never gave any sign of repentance. His views are briefly as follows:

• From Cult: A Love Story: Ten Years Inside a Canadian Cult and the Subsequent Long Road of Recovery (2013)

  All of us, not just the facilitators, had memorized and absorbed enough of the rhetoric, and the methods she taught, that we could spout it back and forth to one another in any situation: “You’re in your ego,” and “What does your heart say?” and, my personal favourite, “What is The Truth?” Because of my continuing conflicting feelings about the group, I was surprised that I had been chosen to co-facilitate. But what the title of co-facilitator did was give me a renewed sense of ownership about the group philosophies. I had temporarily fallen from grace when I moved out of Limori’s home, but this move back up in the group hierarchy helped slightly to quell my feelings of dissatisfaction. It drew me once again closer to Limori, even though she wasn’t present, and I suspect that was part of the reason I was tapped for the job. Any disagreement I had with the ways Limori taught and led were brushed away as I took over the task of winnowing out members’ ego positions and chiding them for not being “in their heart.” The more I said these things to the others, the more I believed them, and my cult self took a slightly more dominant position inside me once again. By 1997, the Vancouver group had dwindled to roughly eleven members, including me, from a high in the early 1990s of fifty or more. Without a charismatic leader there was really nothing to draw anyone new to the group. Now that Mildred, Michael and I were co-facilitating the circle, we were the ones who sat at the head of the circle. The meetings on both Wednesday and Thursday nights were two hours long. We’d gather a little early and set up the chairs. It was Debbie’s responsibility to bring a small bouquet of flowers to the circle, for atmosphere and good energy. Amber was our treasurer, so she sat close to the front door and collected the drop-in fee from each of us. At eight o’clock we’d take our seats and tune in to what Spirit was guiding us to do that evening. The circle was and always had been a place where we all discussed our issues. Each Wednesday and Thursday night was like a mini-workshop; if someone was in their head or in their ego (essentially the same thing) they would either volunteer to bring up what was going on with them, or they would be called on by the facilitator(s). With Limori gone, this format was no different, except that now it was Michael and I who would tune in and work with whoever was having a problem on any particular night. Mildred always sat quietly between Michael and me, listening to what was going on, rarely commenting and always seeming peaceful and serene. My favourite story about Mildred illustrates perfectly who she was. As Karen’s marriage to Gary was dissolving, she was taking classes to become a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  From these and similar passages, however, we perceive also that his martyr-spirit exceeds the limits of the genuine apostolic soberness and resignation, which is equally willing to depart or to remain according to the Lord’s good pleasure.1237 It degenerates into boisterous impatience and morbid fanaticism. It resembles the lurid torch rather than the clear calm light. There mingles also in all his extravagant professions of humility and entire unworthiness a refined spiritual pride and self-commendation. And, finally, there is something offensive in the tone of his epistle to Polycarp, in which he addresses that venerable bishop and apostolic disciple, who at that time must have already entered upon the years of ripe manhood, not as a colleague and brother, but rather as a pupil, with exhortations and warnings, such as: "Strive after more knowledge than thou hast." "Be wise as the serpents." "Be more zealous than thou art." "Flee the arts of the devil."1238 This last injunction goes even beyond that of Paul to Timothy: "Flee youthful lusts,"1239 and can hardly be justified by it. Thus, not only in force and depth of teaching, but also in life and suffering, there is a significant difference between an apostolic and a post-apostolic martyr. The doctrinal and churchly views of the Ignatian epistles are framed on a peculiar combination and somewhat materialistic apprehension of John’s doctrine of the incarnation, and Paul’s idea of the church as the body of Jesus Christ. In the "catholic church"—an expression introduced by him—that is, the episcopal orthodox organization of his day, the author sees, as it were, the continuation of the mystery of the incarnation, on the reality of which he laid great emphasis against the Docetists; and in every bishop, a visible representative of Christ, and a personal centre of ecclesiastical unity, which he presses home upon his readers with the greatest solicitude and almost passionate zeal. He thus applies those ideas of the apostles directly to the outward organization, and makes them subservient to the principle and institution of the growing hierarchy. Here lies the chief importance of these epistles; and the cause of their high repute with catholics and prelatists,1240 and their unpopularity with anti-episcopalians, and modern critics of the more radical school.1241 It is remarkable that the idea of the episcopal hierarchy which we have developed in another chapter, should be first clearly and boldly brought out, not by the contemporary Roman bishop Clement,1242 but by a bishop of the Eastern church; though it was transplanted by him to the soil of Rome, and there sealed with his martyr blood. Equally noticeable is the circumstance, that these oldest documents of the hierarchy soon became so interpolated, curtailed, and mutilated by pious fraud, that it is today almost impossible to discover with certainty the genuine Ignatius of history under the hyper- and pseudo-Ignatius of tradition. § 165. The Ignatian Controversy.

• From Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing (2022)

  Tests and trials and troubles and tribulations are highly effective at taking our egos down a notch. Or two. Or ten. That’s a good thing. Why? I’ll tell you. Humility opens us up to change. Proud people aren’t interested in personal growth. Why should they be? They don’t need to grow because they have it all together, they think. They see themselves as the teachers, not the students; the experts, not the newbies. That is, until they hit a problem they can’t solve, a situation that brings them back to reality. Then they realize—as we all must from time to time—that none of us have all the answers. We are all learners, and that’s okay. When you hit a difficulty or challenge, quickly admit where you need to grow. Don’t pretend to have it all together if you don’t. Seek wisdom. Get counsel. Grow in understanding. Ask for advice. Contrary to popular opinion, pride is the shameful thing, not humility. This brings us back to prayer. Prayer is an act of humility. When we pray, we recognize that there is a Higher Power. We admit that we don’t have it all figured out and we need help. When we are going through trials and we turn to prayer, we invite both internal and external change. Rather than arrogantly insisting God fix our circumstances, we give Him permission to direct our personal growth. The secret to perfection lies in walking with God in humility. These three truths—growth takes time, it takes effort, and it takes humility—are not the easiest things to swallow. You might wish growth were quick, easy, and ego-stroking. Ultimately, though, the process of perfection is one that brings us closer to God. It builds layers of history and intimacy into our relationship with Him. That’s why David was a man after God’s heart—because year after year, battle after battle, challenge after challenge, even though he made some terrible mistakes along the way, he consistently turned to God. He allowed God to purify and change and challenge and guide him. You don’t have to be perfect overnight. But you do have to allow God to transform you. If prayer isn’t changing you, you’re not doing it right.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  He labored in Carthage as a Montanist presbyter and an author, and died, as Jerome says, in decrepit old age, according to some about the year 220, according to others not till 240; for the exact time, as well as the manner of his death, are unknown. His followers in Africa propagated themselves, under the name of "Tertullianists," down to the time of Augustin in the fifth century, and took perhaps a middle place between the proper Montanists and the catholic church. That he ever returned into the bosom of Catholicism is an entirely groundless opinion. Strange that this most powerful defender of old catholic orthodoxy and the teacher of the high-churchly Cyprian, should have been a schismatic and all antagonist of Rome. But he had in his constitution the tropical fervor and acerbity of the Punic character, and that bold spirit of independence in which his native city of Carthage once resisted, through more than a hundred years’ war,1522 the rising power of the seven-hilled city on the Tiber. He truly represents the African church, in which a similar antagonism continued to reveal itself, not only among the Donatists, but even among the leading advocates of Catholicism. Cyprian died at variance with Rome on the question of heretical baptism; and Augustin, with all his great services to the catholic system of faith, became at the same time, through the anti-Peligian doctrines of sin and grace, the father of evangelical Protestantism and of semi-Protestant Jansenism. Hippolytus presents several interesting points of contact. He was a younger contemporary of Tertullian though they never met is far as we know. Both were champions of catholic orthodoxy against heresy, and yet both opposed to Rome. Hippolytus charged two popes with heresy as well as laxity of discipline; and yet in view of his supposed repentance and martyrdom (as reported by Prudentius nearly two hundred years afterwards), he canonized in the Roman church; while such honor was never conferred upon the African, though he was a greater and more useful man. II. Character. Tertullian was a rare genius, perfectly original and fresh, but angular, boisterous and eccentric; full of glowing fantasy, pointed wit, keen discernment, polemic dexterity, and moral earnestness, but wanting in clearness, moderation, and symmetrical development. He resembled a foaming mountain torrent rather than a calm, transparent river in the valley. His vehement temper was never fully subdued, although he struggled sincerely against it.1523 He was a man of strong convictions, and never hesitated to express them without fear or favor.

• From Justine (Alexandria Quartet vol. 1) (1957)

  I am too proud to ask if there is any message for me. The company has started to sing the old song ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ in a variety of times and accents. Pombal has turned pink with pleasure. I gently shake off Clea’s hand in order to join in the singing. The little consul-general is fawning and gesticulating over Pombal; his relief at my friend’s departure is so great that he has worked himself up into a paroxysm of friendship and regret. The English consular group has the disconsolate air of a family of moulting turkeys. Madame de Venuta is beating time with an elegant gloved hand. The black servants in their long white gloves move swiftly from group to group of the guests like eclipses of the moon. If one were to go away, I catch myself thinking, to Italy perhaps or to France: to start a new sort of life: not a city life this time, perhaps an island in the Bay of Naples.… But I realise that what remains unresolved in my life is not the problem of Justine but the problem of Melissa. In some curious way the future, if there is one, has always been vested in her. Yet I feel powerless to influence it by decisions or even hopes. I feel that I must wait patiently until the shallow sequences of our history match again, until we can fall into step once more. This may take years — perhaps we will both be grey when the tide suddenly turns. Or perhaps the hope will die stillborn, broken up like wreckage by the tides of events. I have so little faith in myself. The money Pursewarden left is still in the bank — I have not touched a penny of it. For such a sum we might live for several years in some cheap spot in the sun.

• From Emotional Inheritance (2022)

  Ben covers his face. I see him thinking, and then he says, “You were right, Doctor, I remember you once telling me that pride is our enemy. If I’m still a teenager, playing superhero, looking for revenge, then I’m not a real man.” “Then you act your feelings, instead of understanding them,” I say. “You relive your trauma instead of processing it. I don’t know that there is such a thing as a ‘real man,’” I add, “but I believe the main evidence for strength is the ability to look reality in the eye. When you are able to do that, you save yourself and the next generation from carrying your unprocessed trauma.” “I know exactly what you mean,” Ben says. “My father was a tank driver in the Six-Day War.” IN JUNE 1967, when Ben’s father was twenty years old, the Six-Day War broke out. Ben doesn’t know much about his father’s experience as a tank driver in that war. “My dad never talked about it. I only knew from my mom, who met him right after the war, that he was fighting in Jerusalem and that his best friend died there right before his eyes.” The Six-Day War was the third big war for Israel since 1948. It was that war that changed the old stereotype of the Jewish male. Israelis were proud of the young men who had won the war in only six days, and a new image of a Jewish man arose. Not only was that man seen as more masculine; he was like King David, able to defeat a greater enemy with his strength. Yitzhak Rabin, then Chief of the General Staff, announced after the war that it was the men who had won the war—not technology, not weapons, but the men who overcame enemies everywhere, despite their enemies’ superior numbers and fortifications. He declared that “only their personal stand against the greatest dangers would achieve victory for their country and for their families, and that if victory was not theirs the alternative was annihilation.” The young men’s job, then, was to prevent annihilation. This gave them a way to work through the trauma of the Holocaust and the Jews’ constant threat of persecution. The men carried the weight of history by adopting a hypermasculine role. At eighteen years of age they had to start presenting themselves as confident and fearless. “When I was a child I remember my father waking up in the middle of the night, screaming,” Ben says. “He was traumatized. Who knows what he had seen. I was born only a few years after the Six-Day War.”

• From A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1921)

  In contrast with his own frank truthfulness by which he risked incurring and actually incurred the suspicion of hostility to the Galatians, the apostle declares that they—his opponents, unnamed by so much as a pronoun but clearly enough referred to—are courting the favour of the Galatians, not honourably (cf. Heb. 1338), 7. e., not sincerely and unselfishly, but with selfish motive. That from which these opponents of Paul wish to exclude the Gala- tians is not stated; the context implies either (a) the privilege of the gospel, 7. e., the sense of acceptance with God which those have who believe themselves to have fulfilled the divine requirements, or (b) the circle of those who hold the broader view, Paul and his companions and converts, who maintain that the Gentiles are accepted if they have faith and without fulfilling the requirements of the law. In either case, the effect of such exclusion would be that the Galatians would turn to the Jewish Christians for guidance and association, and the latter would be in the position of being sought after ({nrovTe), The verb ékxkAetoar rather favours the former interpretation, since it is not natural to speak of one group of persons as shutting others out from another group; a verb mean- ing to alienate, or to cause separation from, would be more probable. On {ndodrTe, see BI.-D. 93; BMT 108. Whether we have here an irregularity of form ({7AoUre being thought of as subjunctive) or of syntax ({7AovTE being an indicative after iva) is not possible to determine with certainty. 18, Kadov b€ (nrodobar év KaX@ TavTOTE, Kal uy wdvoy ev TE Tapevat we TOs Vuds, “But it is good to be zealously sought IV ATL =0S 247 after in a good thing, always, and not only when I am present with you.” Most probably a reference to his own persistent seeking after the Galatians, which he by implication character- ises as €v KAX@ in contrast with that of the judaisers, which was ov Kaos, and for the continuance of which, even while absent, he justifies himself by this statement, enforced by v.1%. This interpretation retains as the implied subject of the passive fmAovePat the object of the active (nAouvTE jn v. ">, and best comports with the tone of v.!* into which he passes from this v. apparently without break in thought.

• From A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1921)

  That which sustained the positive assertion he could affirm, but could not appeal to as known to others. 13For ye have heard of my manner of life formerly in the religion of the Jews, that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and ravaged it. “And I was advancing in the religion of the Jews beyond many who were of equal age with me in my nation, being more exceedingly zealous than they of the traditions of my fathers. 13. "Hxovcate yap tHv éunv avactpopyy mote év T@ “Lou- daicuo, “For ye have heard of my manner of life formerly in 44 GALATIANS the religion of the Jews.”’ With this sentence Paul introduces the evidence which his own career furnished that he had not received the gospel from man or by instruction. The force of ydp in the present sentence extends in effect into, if not through, the second chapter. The argument is cumulative in character. Its first step is to the effect that he was not, previous to his conversion, under Christian influence at all, but was, on the contrary, a violent opposer of the Christian church. From whom the Galatians had heard (#«otvcate) the story of his pre- Christian life Paul does not say; most probably it was from himself. If so, this reflects in an interesting way his probable habit of making use of his own experience in presenting the gospel. Cf. Acts, chap. 22, and esp. chap. 26. On the tense of nxovoaTe, see BMT 46, 52. *Avacteoph, meaning in classical writers “return,” etc., first ap- pears in the second century B. c. in the sense “manner of life,” “conduct” (Polyb. 4. 821), which sense it also has in the very few instances in which it is found in the Apocr.: Tob. 44% 2 Mac. 3% (it is not found in the Lxx, canonical books, and though it stands in the Roman edition at 2 Mac. 58 it is without the support of either of the uncials which contain the passage, viz. AV.); this is also its regular meaning in N. T. (Eph. 42 1 Tim. 4" Heb. 13? Jas. 31% 1 Pet. 115 18 212 3h 2%, 16 2 Pet. 27 34). On the position of xoté see Butt. p. 91, and cf. Phil. 41° 1 Cor. 97; also (cited by Sief. ad loc.), Plato, Legg. III 685 D, 4 ths Teolas &Awats td debtepov, “the capture of Troy the second time’; Soph. O. T. 1043, too tupkvvou tHSde yhs mékAat cord, “the long-ago ruler of this land.” *Toudatou.dc, “the Jews’ religion,” occurs in N. T. only in this and the following verse; for exx. outside N. T. see 2 Mac.

• From Summer Sisters (1998)

  straight, to let everyone know once and for all that whatever she and Bru had, it’s officially over, it’s been over for a long time. He’s free to marry whomever, even Caitlin. Okay, so it’s awkward. But look ... is she falling apart? No, goddamn it! Can’t they see she’s fine? That she’s one hundred percent! “So ...” Gus says, “is your boyfriend here?” “My boyfriend?” She pauses, thinking she should have brought someone. Why didn’t she? Earl would have come with her. He’d have found enough material here for at least two new plays. But she says, “No ... he couldn’t make it. What about your girlfriend?” “What girlfriend?” Gus asks. “I’m still trying to get over you. You were my first love.” This time she laughs for real. “You don’t believe me? Ask the Baumer if it’s not true.” Daniel gives her his haughty look. “God help us ... it’s true.” “Well, Gus ... here’s to what might have been,” Vix says, downing a third glass of champagne. This one is a mistake. She knows it the minute she sets the empty glass on the tray. It goes straight to her head, making her dizzy and slightly nauseous. The Chicago Boys escort her outside, where the three of them sit on a log on the beach. Daniel VIX IS LOOKING GOOD. Lost that baby fat. You can see her cheekbones now. Not his type though. He prefers cool blondes. Sleek. The last one told him, You’re just too intense for me, Daniel. I need someone, you know, with less intensity. He’s working on it but given his genes he doesn’t expect to wind up anywhere near loose. Not like Gus with his easygoing humor. Women find him irresistible. Don’t mind his unkempt look. Maybe they dream about making him over, about buying him clothes. You never can tell with women. Look at Ab ... Who’d have guessed his mother had it in her? Drives his father nuts that she’s done so well for herself. Not just the part about Lamb and the money. The other stuff, the philanthropy. She sits on the boards of four major organizations. Lamb’s turned out to be a decent guy. Bought Ab’s folks a place on Longboat Key. Grandma’s the queen of the condo set. He’s not sure about working at his father’s firm. Since his father divorced the Babe he’s been having some kind of personal crisis. Gets depressed. Doctor had him on Prozac for a while. Maybe it’s time for him to move on, relocate even. Miami’s hot, in more ways than one. AFTER A MINUTE Vix slides down in the sand, resting her head against the log. Her eyes close. She floats in and out as Gus and Daniel reminisce, their voices coming from far away, though she can feel their bodies right next to her. “She never could resist those island guys,” Gus says.

• From The Canterbury Tales (2009)

  That’s where I really gave them hell. If I felt their hands reaching out for me, I threatened to make a quick exit - unless, that is, they paid me some form of ransom. Once they had paid up, I let them do whatever they liked. I wasn’t particular. ‘So I tell you all this. You must pay for what you want. Everything in this world is for sale. An empty hand lures no hawk. You know that expression, I

• From The Canterbury Tales (2009)

  I loved her first. I took you into my confidence, and told you all my woe. As my sworn brother, you are bound by oath to help me. Otherwise you will be judged a false and perjured knight.’ Arcite, in pride of spirit, answered him with disdain. ‘You will be judged the faithless knight, Palamon. I was the one who loved her first.’ ‘What are you saying?’ ‘Look at you. You still do not know whether she is a goddess or a woman! You are touched by love for a deity, while I am consumed by love for a mortal woman. That is why I confessed my feelings to you, as my cousin and brother. Put the case that you loved her first. What do all the learned clerks tell us? When love is strong, love knows no law. Love itself has greater dominion. Earthly rules are of no account. Lovers break them every day. A man must love, even if he strives against it; he cannot escape love, even at the cost of his own life. It may be love for a maid, for a widow, or for a married woman. It does not matter. Love is the law of life itself. In any case it is not likely that you or I will ever win her favour. You know well enough that we are both consigned to this cell perpetually, without hope of ransom. We are like the dogs in Aesop’s fable, striving for the bone. They fought all day, without result, and then there came a kite that bore the prize away. Therefore we must behave like courtiers around the king. Each one for himself. Do you agree? I tell you again that I will always love her. You can love her, too, if you wish. There is nothing more to say, nothing else to do. We will remain in this prison for the rest of our days, and endure whatever fate is visited upon us.’ If I had more time, I would tell you more about the continual strife and enmity between them. But let me be brief and to the point. It happened one day that the worthy duke Perotheus, king of the Lapiths, arrived in Athens. He had been the intimate of Theseus since earliest childhood, and had come to the city to resume their happy companionship; he loved no one in the world so much as his friend, and Theseus returned that love. Anyone who reads the old books will learn of it. The story is that when Theseus died, Perotheus went down to hell in order to rescue him. What was Theseus doing in hell? I do not know that part of the story. To resume my own tale, if I may, I should inform you that Perotheus had been the lover of Arcite. So at his friend’s earnest desire and entreaty, Theseus decreed that Arcite should be released from prison without any ransom.

• From The Canterbury Tales (2009)

  or beguile them. ‘They loved me so much that I took their love for granted. That is the truth of it. A wise woman will be busy looking for a lover only when she hasn’t got one. But since I had them in the palm of my hand - and got all their money, too - why should I go to the trouble of pleasing them further? I could please myself instead. So I set them to work. Many nights they were exhausted and miserable. Were they unhappy with me? Well, let me put it like this. We would not have won many prizes for domestic bliss. Yet I got my way. I kept them sweet enough. They were always bringing me gifts from the local fair. And they were always happy when I spoke nicely to them. God alone knows that there were many times when I scolded them. Oh, did I nag them! Now, all you wives, listen to me carefully. Always be mistress in your household. If you need to, accuse your husbands of things they haven’t done. That is the way to behave towards men. I tell you this much. Women are much better at lying and cheating than men. I am not telling this to experienced wives. They have no need of my advice. I am talking to those who are having trouble. A wise wife, if she knows what she is doing, can swear that fire is water. If a little bird whispers in her husband’s ear, about something or other, she will call the little bird a liar. She will even get her maid to swear to her virtue. That’s the way to do it. ‘So this is the kind of thing I said: “Now, you old dotard, what have you got to tell me? Why is our neighbour’s wife looking so pleased with herself? She is respected and flattered wherever she goes. And what about me? I am obliged to sit at home. I don’t have any clothes to wear. And why are you always next door? Is that woman so good-looking? Or are you just randy? Why are you always whispering with my maid? Good God, man! Button up your trousers, you old lecher. And what if I do have a man friend? What’s that to you? Why do you always complain if I just pop into his house for a minute or two? Then you come home rat-arsed, stinking of drink, and start lecturing me on my behaviour. What a load of nonsense. You go drivelling on about the curse of marriage. If you marry a poor woman, you say, then it costs a fortune. If you marry a rich woman, or a woman of high birth, you have to put up with her airs and graces. If she is good-looking, then you have to put up with her easy virtue. Oh yes, you say, any lecher can take her. Her virtue comes cheap.

• From Best Erotica & Sexual Deviance Narratives Ever Written (2024)

  I am forty-five, Therese; I committed my first crime at fourteen. That one emancipated me from all the bonds that hampered me; since then I have not ceased to chase fortune throughout a career sown with crimes, there's not a single one I've not done or had done... and never have I known any remorse. However that may be, I am reaching my term, yet another two or three neat strokes and I pass from the mediocre condition wherein I was to have spent my life, to an income of above fifty thousand a year. I repeat, my dear, never upon this happily traveled road has remorse made me feel its stings; a catastrophic miscarriage might this instant plunge me from the pinnacle into the abyss, I'd not feel remorse, no: I would lament my want of skill or accuse men, but I should always be at peace with my conscience." Chapter 37 "Very well," I replied, "very well, Madame, but let's spend a moment reasoning in terms of your own principles: what right have you to require that my conscience be as impregnable as yours when since childhood it has not been accustomed to vanquishing the same prejudices? By what title do you require that my mind, which is not constituted like your own, be able to adopt the same systems? You acknowledge sums of good and evil in Nature, you admit that, in consequence, there must be a certain quantity of beings who practice good and another group which devotes itself to evil; the course I elect is hence natural; therefore, how would you be able to demand that I take leave of the rules Nature prescribes to me ? You say you find happiness in the career you pursue; very well, Madame, why should it be that I do not also find it in the career I pursue? Do not suppose, furthermore, that the law's vigilance long leaves in peace him who violates its codes, you have just had a striking example of the contrary; of the fifteen scoundrels with whom I was living, fourteen perish ignominiously...." "And is that what you call a misfortune ?" Dubois asked. "But what does this ignominy mean to him who has principles no longer?

• From The Canterbury Tales (2009)

  The Wife of Bath’s Prologue The prologe of the Wives Tale of Bathe ‘I don’t care what anyone says. Experience of the world is the best thing. It may not be the main authority but, in relationships, it is a good teacher. I know all about unhappiness in marriage. Goodness me. Oh yes. I was twelve years old when I first got a husband. I’ve had five altogether, thanks be to God. Five of them trooping up to the church door. That is a lot of men. By and large they were gentlemen, or so I was led to believe. Yet I was told quite recently - I forget by whom - that our Saviour attended only one wedding. It was in the town of Cana. So, the argument goes, I should only ever have been married once. And then there was the time when Jesus rebuked the Samaritan woman. They were standing beside a well, weren’t they? “You have had five husbands,” He said. “And the man you are living with is not your husband.” He was God and man, so I suppose He knew what He was talking about. I don’t understand what His point was, but I am sure He had one. Why was the fifth man not her husband? It doesn’t make any sense. How many husbands had she actually had? How many husbands was she allowed? In all my life I never heard there was a limit. Have you? ‘There will be ever so many experts telling us one thing and another. But I know this much. God told us to go forth and multiply. Am I right? I can understand that part of the Bible, at any rate. And wasn’t it God who commanded my husband to “leave father and mother” and belong to me alone? But He never mentioned a number. It could be two. It could be eight. Who knows? There’s nothing wrong with it, anyway. ‘What about that Solomon? He was a clever man. Didn’t he have more than one wife? I wish to God I had his luck. If I had half as many husbands as he had wives, I would be laughing. Think of it. I could be God’s gift to men. And what about all those wedding nights? I bet that he did you-know-what as hard as a hammer with a nail. I bet he gave them a right pounding. ‘Well, thank God, I have had five at least. Roll on number six. I don’t care where or when, as long as he comes. I am not going to sew myself up. When my present husband goes the way of all flesh, I shall be looking for another. You can bet on it. What is the name of that apostle who said that was the best thing to do? “Better to marry than to burn.” That’s what he said. And he can say it again. I don’t give a damn what people think.

• From City of Night (1963)

  But Carl went on: “Do you know how he makes his contacts?—and, again, I dont know how he met you—” More wine. The masculinity has relaxed into a girlish wistfulness of the face, the body. “Well, sometimes, he advertises sales of leather goods, in the newspapers. Then he makes the people who turn up. Or he invites people over for... tea!” He chortles. “Neil is so buried in his fantasy that he cant acknowledge that several of these people come to him to get something else from him—at first: food or whatever—to stay if they dont have a place.... Why did you come?” he asked me. “What youre saying isnt true,” Neil said severely. “I get calls from Los Angeles—as far as Seattle—farther!—people wanting to meet me—just to talk to me, see my Collection!” “Collect?” Carl asked. Neil: “I said Collection. My Collection.” Carl: “I mean the calls from Seattle—are they collect?” “Prepaid!” Neil said annoyedly. “Although,” he added, making Carl smile, “if I help people out, what difference does that make? After all, a convert—...” “Is a convert,” Carl finished for him. “Well, you dont have to talk as if youre not!” Carl asked me: “Has he told you he considers himself a Saint?” Neil: “I lead people in the direction they want to go. I fulfill—...” Carl raised his glass in a toast. “To Saint Neil of the Leather Jacket!” He said to me: “I was brought over by a... ‘friend,’ and Neil—how do you put it so cleverly, dearheart?—oh, yes! He ‘opened the door—a quarter of the way only’—the first time. And all that attention he heaps on you! Whew! And then—then he pushed the door open!” He made a harsh gesture of shoving an invisible door. He laughed, straightening up decorously on the chair, realizing he was getting high. “And it was quite a world, Saint Tex—oops!—I mean: Saint Neil of the—of the—...What? Leather Jacket. Thats it: Saint Neil of the Leather Jacket!” “You were anxious to come in, whether you knew it then or not,” Neil hurled at him. “Was I?” Carl said, passing his hand over his eyes for clarity. “It was such a long time ago.... Remember, Neil, when you advertised one of your phony sales—and the man called, and he came over with his mother and his wife? He’d probably been warned about you. Did you dress all three up?” “You know I cant stand women,” Neil said icily. “Thats ruh-hight!” Carl turned to me: “Has Neil recited his poem—scuse me: I mean, speech—about the place of women in the world?” “Nevermind,” said Neil. “Youve been talking enough. Now I’ll talk.” He turned toward me, and I will be startled by the new tone of his voice, his look. He will no longer be the man who only minutes earlier in the pictures assumed the groveling positions. No. Watch him now as he becomes a politician expounding a noble movement; a general indoctrinating his troops.

• From Ulysses (Kindle edition — verify full work) (1922)

  It is precisely this notion with which the reverend must contend; for, upon his realization that Etta is no more intent than he on future encounters and as relieved as himself to part, he attempts to assuage his fractured male ego by characterizing Etta as a "worldly" woman-one outside convention and, even more precisely, the church. The paradox, however, is that his conduct as a preacher is far less conventional than Etta's since he violated the rules of the religious practice he chose and in which he was ordained. The reverend judges his own behavior gently as "temporary weakness of the flesh," displacing his own sexual indiscretion onto Etta, who "got out of the car unassisted and didn't bother to turn and watch the taillights as it pulled off down the deserted avenue adjacent to Brewster Place" (72). "Black male sexuality differs from female sexuality because black men have," as Cornel West posits, "different self-images and strategies of acquiring power in the patriarchal structures of white America and black communities."12 Whereas Reverend Moreland anticipated governing the terms of their next encounter and having control over whether or not it ever occurs, Etta, in a move that exposes her own sexual autonomy, transgressive behavior, and empowerment, expects nothing more in a mutual discontinuation of sexual engagements. She walks away, disregarding the reverend, just as he ostensibly would have done. And so, even if Etta did not necessarily beat him at his own "game," she did alter the rules of engagement, renegotiating, as she always does, the fundamental right of the game to exist. This scene and Etta's cumulative experiences with the reverend offer another critique of religion that parallels the problematic dynamics it presents in Mattie's situation regarding sex as unorthodox. Yet, instead of a castigation of religion for a repressiveness that leads to experimentation and negative consequences (pregnancy, in Mattie's scenario), the critique here is of the inhibitions in the preacher, who, despite his religious position, operates off of lust and a masculinist hegemony regarding Etta. He attempts to attain sexual gratification through an objectification and reduction of her to a sexual being-or, in his words, a "worldly" woman. In this regard, he commits "fornication" in the Greek and loaded sense of the word in that he engages in "the objectification of another human being for the purposes of self-gratification."13